Progress? It does exist!

Awesome, awesome raid week with my new guild.

We downed Rotface in 25 man, which was both a new kill to me and the guild.  We also were able, in one night, to get 8 bosses down in icc 10.

The Valithria Dreamwalker fight was really fun.  And it was even more fun to listen to the hoots and hollers after downing (raising?)  a new boss.  As a side note, our one holy pally had a crit heal on the boss for 83,000.  *boggle*

And, on top of that, I joined up with a resto shaman for a twos team, and we got up to about a 500 team rating.  Not bad for the first week.  And I am teamed up with the very same resto shaman and a ret pally for a 3s team.  ZOMG, combine my spiffy new sword from icc 25 + heroism (bloodlust) + ret pally bust damage = something dead and FAST.  Our 3s team is at 739 after my first week of joining them.

All in all, it was a great week of PVE and PVP content.

Being a "good guy" has its benefits.

Arena.. schmarena

So... I lost my 2s partner when Soul left.. I was quite sad because we were actually starting to do well and I had no doubt in my mind we'd be hitting at least 1800 soon. /sigh.

Well, last night before resets, I was asked to do some 2s. I said sure, might as well at least get my 10 games in for the points since I only have 1 upgrade left before I need ratings.

Now, this person plays a hunter... Hunter/Priest? I really couldn't see it working very well, but what the hell, I wanted my points. First map is Nagrand Arena. YAY! This is probably one of my favorite arena maps. We go in and I tried to live as long as I could, but my partner just didn't have the burst to dps down 2 plate wearers.

Second map is Ring of Valor. Not really my favorite, but it doesn't bother me. Both DPS focus on me.. Not really something I'm a stranger to since most people tend to want to pick on the priest... Except I don't think they were prepared for a priest with 1334 Resilience and just under 30k HP. I lived forever it seemed, however my partner just lacked the burst to kill either one of them. /sigh.

Right as I queued for the next match, he says to me in vent, "Are you ready to give up? Cause I am". I was like, uhh no, I'd like to just get the 10 games in. So we go into the third match. The same problem... I live live live live no one can kill me, however my partner's dps wasn't enough. He managed to get the rogue down and almost had the other guy dead as I died... but it really seemed that once I died, he just sort of gave up. MEH.

Fourth game... Dalaran Arena.. one of my least favorites but hey, whatever, I go with what I get. We're up against a resto druid and a ret pally. Ok, I figured this was probably going to be a difficult team for us because my partner lacked the burst to kill the druid and his sustained dps wasn't going to kill the pally. I gave it my all though.. I kept him alive although he was being focused. For the most part, I was left alone running around keeping my partner alive. I knew this team wasn't very versed in Arenas because I was allowed to heal at my heart's desire. Regardless of this, my partner emo-spiraled because I guess he realized how bad he really was and just left the game. Yes. He left the arena mid-battle. I was left alone in there. I left the game, asked in vent if he's just going to give up when it gets rough, and he replies with "yeah". Well eff you too. I logged out of vent and out of WoW.

I'm a pretty patient person... and I think Soul knows this since our first week or so in Arena was rough, but we still had fun. Our 2nd week, we started winning games and we were having a great time... I came from a 2k rated 2s team on my old server, so I do know a bit about it. This isn't to say that I think I'm some sort of pro and I'm this god's gift to arena. I don't believe that at all... but I do believe that to get to a rating like that, you can't just give up. We may not have had the best comp for 2s, but who cares? If you try and do your homework, we may have been able to get some wins in.

This person has pissed me off to no-end a few times before last night. I don't hold grudges.. pretty much just say "Hey you prick, you pissed me off. Don't fucking do it again". Then I just move on. I've done that on 2 recent occasions already... Should I do it again? Probably. Will I? Doubtful. Why is this time different? Because its a trend with him... it doesn't go his way, he'll emo-nerd-rage. Will I keep raiding with him? Yeah, I want to raid... and I won't let personal feelings get in the way of that... but will I continue to do things outside of that with this person? No.. probably not... at least not voluntarily.

A Short Update

 I've received an e-mail from Blizz saying that I've been assigned a specialist in my case, and he/she'll be contacting me via e-mail with the results of his investigation.  My account's password was reset (and lo, I changed it yet again within a week).  They also gave me the standard they'll do their best to restore my stuff and whatnot.

So, at least I've got a little acknowledgment that my ticket has been received.  I have time now to read plenty of WoW blogs while I wait, I suppose.

Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot...

So... the past couple of days were spent queuing up for random heroics. For the most part, I could care less what someone's gear score is in a heroic, but there really should be a limit. The other day, a guildie and I got stuck in a random heroic with a tank with a 2400 gear score. They politely stated in party chat that they literally just hit 80.

I give most people a chance. IMO, skill > gear for the most part... Well... I really should rethink that a little. There was no way in hell I should have stayed in that group. I was pulling healing aggro off this pally... well EVERYONE was pulling aggro off of him. I give him credit though.. he tried... but everyone in the group out geared him by at least 3k gear score...

I understand that after you ding 80, you wanna jump into heroics... but really... shouldn't ya just run some Normal Halls of Stone and Halls of Lightning to pick up some gear first? Or maybe queue up as a DPS and roll on tank gear... I guess that just requires too much logic.

I seem to forget that logic doesn't factor much in this game anymore.. if its logical then that would just be too easy. Lets just eff it up for some other people because I want to do it my way and my way only.

/facepalm

What am I doing in Icecrown?

Well, this has been an interesting morning.

I login to get my early daily runs in around 5 AM, and I find Quint plummeting to his demise in the middle of Icecrown.

That's strange; I parked him in Undercity yesterday after (finally) completing Uldaman.

Hey, why's his gear score so low?

And where's my off spec stuff?

And where's my gold?

Crapola.

Yes, sometime overnight I was hacked.  Years of paying my bills online, and I've never had a problem.  On WoW for less than a year?  Hacked.  What that says about the popularity of WoW and gold miners is left as an exercise for the student.

I put in a call to Blizz to get my stuff recovered, but in the meantime I've been poking around to find the weak point in my laptop, not the desktop that I play on.  Why the laptop?  Two reasons:  I do all of my WoW related surfing on it (not the desktop), and I've a hunch that the default work settings for such things as Cookies are terrible.

(Update:  Yes, they were.  [expletive deleted] employer settings.  Since corrected.)

Oh, well.  Hopefully they didn't hit the guild bank using my account; that would suck.

Traitor? That's me!

Yep, that's right.

I started a Human Paladin the other day.

I feel so dirty.

Okay, I'm trying several classes, and he's one of them, but right now he's the one with the heirloom weapon.  Of course, since it's a 2H axe, he can't use it yet.  Figures.

Maybe it's because I'm so used to the "us against the world" and "nobody loves us so we all have to band together" aspect of the Horde, but I'm having real problems relating to a Human Alliance character.  I can't bring myself to appreciate the "oh, look at the poor humans, how they've lost so much" and "ooo, those MEANIE Horde people running around, they're all just vermin" that the Human NPCs radiate.

Excuse me? 

And you don't think that the Forsaken had it bad, losing their lives to the Scourge?  Or the Blood Elves, getting facerolled by Arthas and then accused of being traitors when they were left to their own devices?  Or the Tauren, who were getting beat up on by the centaurs?

Sheesh.

Now, it's possible -likely, even- that the other Alliance races aren't that bad.  Whenever I see a Draeneii around, Lorne Greene's voiceover from the 70's Battlestar Galactica pops into my head:  "Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, a rag tag fugitive fleet...."  And don't get me started on the Gnomes.  Way way WAY too much Polyanna in them.

What am I going to do?  Oh, I'll keep putzing around with Alliance characters for the moment, as the lure of seeing the questing from an Alliance angle would be very interesting.  Quint is less than 450 quests away from the Seeker, so the challenge of duplicating that feat from the Alliance side is tempting.

Hell hath frozen over

Last week was a very dramatic week...

There were a few things that all coincided. 

1. My raiding guild fell apart due to a number of the players wanting to split off and do their own thing.
2. My friend faction changed and transferred off the server to join up with RL friends of his.

It kinda left me with a hefty choice on my plate. 

I was offered a spot in the newly formed splinter guild, and they showed some promise towards progressing on a 10 man raid team.  However, I had a few reservations about joining them.  A few members of the splinter group I really enjoyed playing with, but there's a few I really didn't care for.  And I didn't really want to limit myself to seeing 10 man content with those few I didn't really care for.  Not to mention some inconsistencies with the splinter group.  They voiced some complaints about a few members.  And during my two days of trying to decide what to do, I notice the member they complained about is once again in their ranks.  This happened for two different people.  It just didn't make sense to me.  They basically reformed the same guild they were, just with new leadership and a new name and with out the previous leadership (who weren't bad players, just not strong leaders).

With that said, though, I still hold high regard for the friends I did make in the group.  One of which, is a contributing member to this blog, and I hope she will remain so.

One of my other choices was to help rebuild the current guild.  At this point in the expansion where the doldrums are hitting, I didn't feel that option would have much success.  And honestly, the other tank left in the guild I could NOT stand to be around.  So, I wished them the best, and chose my last option and best chance for overall success...  And I missed playing with my friend, who during our entire time in the past guild were not able to raid together because the group felt it was best to split us up.

To the Alliance I went.  I've been horde since day one.  Five years of it...  I was so anti- alliance.

Now?  Meh... It's all just about the same.  I dislike gnomes as much as I do blood elfs. 

The group I joined up with seems very nice so far.  They're all over 21, a good majority of the guild is in the military (or was), and there's quite a few husband /wife and father / son groups that play.  The guild has a STRICT no drama policy.  In fact, if you cause drama, you get removed from the guild.  AND, they have a structured loot system.  No more crying from others about losing a random roll on gear.  AND, they raid on the weekends, leaving quite a bit more time open during the week to relax and actually get some sleep - which also means, the wifey can join in raids now, seeing as she doesn't have to worry about staying up too late during the weekdays.

Yep... Souldat is now a human death knight...

I can't tell you how odd (but refreshing because it's all new) to watch the various attack animations and sounds of an alliance group.  A druid shapeshifts and an elf pops out... Uh....

The wife and I didn't want to leave our favorite paladin high and dry though, so he's got some mail waiting on him...

Even though I've joined the ranks of the good guys at level 80, I'd like to see some more of the quests, and plan on leveing an alt, now that I'll have time to do so during the week.

(I did one quest in the howling fjord where I had to test out a concoction a drunk gnome whipped up on a vyrkul prisoner... upon ingesting the vial, the vyrkul turned into a slime, to which the dozen guards or so standing at the ready were thoroughly grossed out by.  Asking what kind of a freak I was for doing that, and some getting sick - it was the first time I had actually laughed out loud because of a quest in a LONG time.)